One-step procedure for the preparation of functional polysaccharide/fatty acid multilayered coatings

Abstract

Soft, stratified, amphiphilic systems are recurrent motifs in nature, e.g., in myelin sheaths or thylakoid stacks, and synthetic analogues are increasingly being exploited in the areas of biocatalysis, biosensing, and drug delivery. The synthesis of such complex multilayered systems usually requires lengthy preparation protocols. Here, we demonstrate the formation of multilayered fatty acid/polysaccharide thin films prepared via a single step protocol, which exploits the spontaneous self-assembly of the components into vesicular systems in aqueous solution. The solutions are characterized by light and neutron scattering experiments and the thin films by neutron reflectometry, optical ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy, and x-ray diffraction. The thin films exhibit structural features with sub-10 nm dimensions, stemming from the ordered sequence of hydrophilic and hydrophobic layers and respond strongly to changes in ambient humidity. Using this approach, films with a total thickness varying from tens to hundreds of nanometers can be easily prepared.

OpenHumidistat: Humidity-controlled experiments for everyone

“…Systems designed to adjust the humidity in experiments are often based on equilibria of water vapour with salt solutions [2] , [3] , local heating of a water bath in a reservoir chamber [4] , [5] , or using an air stream composed of a mixture of approximately dry and water-saturated air [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] that is manually mixed in varying ratios. The first method provides stable control, but is very inflexible: for every value of humidity, a specific salt is required.…”

Green Nanofabrication Opportunities in the Semiconductor Industry: A Life Cycle Perspective

“…Fatty acids do not have polar functional groups throughout their structure, but they possess end carboxylic acid groups and, as such, can be adapted for blocking surfaces when patterning metals. Stearic acid, oleic acids and various others have already been used as surface coatings mainly for nanoparticle stabilisation, however due to their inherent hydrophobic nature, we propose their application to ASD for surface blocking [76,77]. Stearyl and lauryl acrylate were utilised by Wang et al to design a bio-based block copolymer with styrene moieties as a more sustainable thermoplastic [78].…”

OpenHumidistat: Humidity-controlled experiments for everyone

“…Systems designed to adjust the humidity in experiments are often based on equilibria of water vapour with salt solutions [2,3], local heating of a water bath in a reservoir chamber [4,5], or using an air stream composed of a mixture of approximately dry and water-saturated air [6,7,8,9] that is manually mixed in varying ratios. The first method provides stable control, but is very inflexible: for every value of humidity, a specific salt is required.…”